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The Son of Sorrows – Extract

A Black Library Publication

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The Son of Sorrows

John French

‘Slaughter is harder than people imagine. With the right circumstances, it can occur spontaneously, but to bring it about deliberately is a most difficult matter. Still more difficult is effective terror. The human mind is prone to fear, but terror, the deep emotion that lingers in the bone and blood for generations – for that, the tools must be sharp, and their application finely judged.’

– from an address to the High Lords of Terra
by Drakan Vangorich, 12th Grand Master
of the Officio Assassinorum

Mission time stamp 01:32:34

‘You.’

Koleg did not look around.

‘You hear me?’

Koleg kept his gaze on the temple front.

‘You need to move, friend-pilgrim.’

Statues covered the temple, piled together and mortared in place, drowning in bright paint and gold leaf. Gargoyles leered up at the blink of discharge from the remembrance towers that rose above it. Gilded haloes gleamed. Holy lips smiled red. Rain ran from the faces of the saints and the wings of the angels. They called it the city of tears for its rain.

The drops splashed on his face and patterned on his coat. He saw the water pour from the edge of an angel’s wing. The stone feathers caught a flash of light from the electro-discharge. For a second they looked real…

Oh-ho, ho-nooo…

Which one did we know…

Knowww… ho…

‘I am going to say it one more time. You need to–’

‘It needs to be an example,’ he said. ‘That’s what the order is.’

He turned and looked at the warden. The man was fat. His red cloak of office was too small for him, and he held a shock rod in his right hand. The thumb was steady on the activation stud. There were debt and penance tattoos on the man’s chin and jaw, red and black dots amongst stubble.

‘You are not a part of this,’ said Koleg. ‘You should not be here.’

He saw the pupils go wide in the warden’s eyes, but he did not back away.

‘It’s curfew,’ said the man. ‘It’s the will of the Lords, you have to–’

Koleg hit him just beneath the sternum. Air gasped from between teeth. The man stumbled backwards. Koleg jolted his palm into his jaw, and the warden dropped onto the wet stone steps. Koleg drew a needle from a sheath in his cuff and stabbed it into the man’s throat. He flicked the tiny glass bubble on the needle’s head, and sedative began to seep down the silver shaft. The warden would not wake for an hour. By then it would be over.

Koleg shrugged the pack from his back. Fastenings snapped open. Gun metal gleamed in the blue crackle. His hands worked quickly: propellant kindler into stock, stock into casing, drum number one into feed port.

I know, I know…

I know where you go…

The thread of rhyme passed through his thoughts again. He paused for a second.

Hawk shifting on a gloved hand, eyes hidden under a red falconry hood…

He blinked and stood, the grenade launcher in his hands. Viola said that communication out of the district would be disrupted for an hour. He reached into his coat and took out the mask. The raindrops formed silver domes on the black ceramic. Its eyes were mirrors. Two chrome cylinders plugged into the cheeks. He pulled it on. Luminous numerals lit at the edge of his sight. Small speaker grilles settled over his ears with a hiss of static.

He took a breath. It was not to calm him. He was always calm. It was a habit, and habits were important.

They did not know that he was coming. The shock would help.

He looked at the temple doors, big blank slabs of board and metal. White-and-red handprints all over them. Hinges exposed. Rock frame. He had time to place the charges he had brought. There was no need to rush. They did not know he was coming.

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A Black Library Publication

First published in Black Library Events Anthology 2017/2018 in Great Britain in 2017.
This eBook edition published in 2018 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by John Michelbach.

The Son of Sorrows © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2018. The Son of Sorrows, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
All Rights Reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78030-744-2

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

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